What does the future hold? And how might we hold the future in our hands? Faced with war, economic uncertainty and the climate crisis, looking ahead can feel apocalyptic, and that’s the mood I have tried to capture in my poem Planet Planet Burning Bright (sorry, William Blake!)
I’m excited that the video of this poem has been chosen as an exhibit at the Hadau Arts Exhibition in Cardiff, Wales, with the theme Holding the Future? “Hadau” is a Welsh word meaning “seeds” and I’ve
I’ll be at the exhibition opening this Saturday 7 March at 7pm, and is free with chance to meet many of the artists.
There’s also the upcoming Hadau Arts Conference on Saturday 21 March, with a special Urban Wordsmiths x Hadau spoken word evening the night before on Friday 20 March. More details of those after the poem!
If you’re in reach of Cardiff, it would be great to see you there (sorry international friends!
As my friend Alastair Gordon, who will be speaking at the conference, says, “in times of crisis, make art”. And it certainly seems to me a fitting response to our uncertain times.
Scroll on down to read the poem and for more conference details!
Planet Planet Burning Bright
With apologies to William Blake, St John of Patmos, the Met Office
and future generations of the human race
Planet Planet Burning Bright
No forest left in thy dark night
What mortal hand or eye
Dare deface thy fearful glory?
In what distant deeps and skies
Burnt the fires of our desires?
On what shores dared we destroy?
What the hand, dared stoke the flames?
Cloudy with a chance of extinction
Flooding of a few homes and major population centres
is possible
Whose the hammers? whose the chains?
In whose furnace forged the acid rains?
When the sun throws down its rays
And boils oceans with its gaze:
Will we smile our work to see?
Will we who killed the Lamb kill thee?
Danger of substantial disruption to
Travel plans and human civilisation
Forecast of survival: moderate to poor
Is it time? A time for wrath?
For destroying those who destroy the earth?
Mountains fall on us
Hills cover us
The earth and everything done to it will be laid bare
Planet Planet Burning Bright
How can we stand in the Lamb’s sight?
Stormy with a chance of apocalypse
Take action now to keep yourself and others safe.
Urban Wordsmiths x Hadau, Friday 20 March
Entrance is included with a Hadau conference ticket, or you can book for the evening alone here:
Hadau Conference, Saturday 21 March
Urban Crofters Church partners with Morphē Arts to host an Exhibition and a Conference to gather and deepen the conversation of arts and faith in Wales. Speakers include Adrienne Chaplin (philosopher of art) and Alastair Gordon (artist and author of Why Art Matters).
Programme:
